Sugarcubes // Finnick Odair - Hunger Games Fanfic

X.

The two days following Finnick and my meeting on the rooftop pass with little to no excitement.

Austin continues to show no promise whatsoever at anything that he tries, and I continue to avoid him. The girl from twelve has taken to following me around and watching my every move which makes it harder for me to focus on the task at hand.She seems cold and calculating, something which she doesn't even try to play down. She even makes it clearly evident she's following me around, dropping everything she's doing to stare at me for minutes at a time, making me increasingly comfortable.

I learn that I'm pretty handy at sword fighting and spear handling, probably because of my arm strength, though not exactly comfortable with either weapon. I also excel at creating snares and explore making them for the function of trapping actual people in them, although I doubt that I'm going to use them. They freak me out too much. I learn how to fish, granted not as well and the girl from four, but adequate enough for me to survive on water. I spend little time at the natural remedies section, since, growing up in the lumber yard has made me handy at picking out the best leaves to clean a cut, scrape, or graze. I brush up on my knife skills a little when I'm sure nobody's looking except the game makers, but don't touch the axes. It might seem out of the ordinary, a district 7 tribute avoiding axes like they have some sort of plague, but Austin is doing the same, so I shouldn't have any problem. I learn the girl from twelve is good at spears. I don't understand how she could have gotten her hands on one to practice, but she seems to have seen them before from the amount of expertise she shows in handling them.

The guy from district one relies purely on his strength. He seems to be the one guy from the career pack who's only skill is to crack people's necks in half. If I kill him by axe throwing, though, it shouldn't be a problem. The rest of the careers all show pretty common weapon skills: a bow, a sword, and knives.

It still unnerves me to talk about how I'm going to kill all of these people, but that's my life now, if I want to have a life beyond these games.

Today is arguably one of the biggest days since I volunteered for the games. I have my private session with the game makers today – the one after which they will score me on the promise I show as a killer. I'm sitting next to Austin, both of us feeling just as awkward as the other. We haven't really even looked at each other after that night. I can't say that I mind, because it just makes it even harder when he's going to die. The tributes slowly leak into the training center and come out slowly. I notice that each one's reacts when coming out can determine what score they think they're going to get. The girl from one, who's the first one to go in comes out shaking in sobs. The careers that follow come out unbearably confident. I wonder what my reaction will given the others to work with about my character.

"Kendria Parstons" A female voice echoes through the speakers and so I get up from my place and walk towards the training center.

"Hey Kendria?" I turn to see Austin behind me. I'm a little apprehensive that I didn't hear him behind me and that he's talking to me after I threatened to kill his so to speak. "Blow them out of the world."

I'm pretty sure the phrase, which originates from district Four, is 'blow them out of the water' but I bite my tongue.

I smile at him and keep walking entering the training center which has been cleaned. All the stations have been pushed to clear a large open space in the center.

"Kendria Parstons, District 7." I announce, looking up at the game makers with a practiced smirk on my face. I walk slowly towards the knives, thinking to season them up with a few knife tricks before pulling out my grand finale. But by the time I walk to the knife section, I notice that none of the game makers are looking. Most of them are already too stuffed with their meals, too drunk or too busy flirting with the waitresses to notice what I'm doing. I feel another surge of anger rush through me. They've summoned 23 tributes here to die, and they can't even pay attention? Changing my course quickly, I drag one of the dummies out from the knife section grabbing an assortment of knives on my way. I dump them all on the opposite wall of the game makers balcony, making sure the make as much noise as I can, and go back to get an axe. I throw an axe in the axe station in case some sane game-makers are still watching, and then grab the rest of the axes. I pick up a bucket of red paint from the camouflage section.